Epic Smash Brothers
by Kryzeth
Summary: A brand new story, full of action and adventure, alliances and betrayals. Following the events of the Subspace Emissary, I present to you the story, of EPIC Smash Bros.
1. Aftermath of the Subspace Emissary

**[1]**

"...Ponch!" yelled Captain Falcon as he used his most powerful flaming attack on the last and final subspace bomb. It exploded quite normally, rather than creating a subspace portal as happened when it was activated by the ROB robots. The smashers had spent the last few days cleaning up the mess left over from the events of the Subspace Emissary. Although Tabuu had been defeated a while back, there were still a few subspace bombs left around. To make sure another subspace thing didn't happen, they had to destroy every last one of them.

"Show me your moves" he said with a salute.

"Alright, that's the last of 'em. This whole ordeal is over now, right? So can we get back to smashing?" asked a tall military man with a scruffy beard and full camo.

"Oh yeah, here we go!" answered a short red plumber in blue overalls as he raised his fist triumphantly in the air.

"Uh huh" nodded a kid with a red cap and a very rotund head.

"Grr-ahh!" seconded a tall dark man in pure black clothes as he filled his fist with evil purple energy.

"Hiii!" waved a little pink puffball from beside him.

"Pikachu!" said a small yellow mouse in a malicious tone.

"Alright, pump it up!" grinned a bright blue hedgehog.

"Hmm" hummed a green plumber, similar to the red one, but slightly taller and skinnier.

"What makes you think you're good enough to join us Nintendo characters in this brawl?" threatened Meta Knight as he brandished his spiked sword.

"Hey, don't bash non-Nintendo characters. Come on Sonic, let's show 'em all how third party characters fight." Replied the military man as he took out a grenade.

"Okay, let's go!" the blue hedgehog gave a thumbs up.

Then the military man commented under his breath "At least my rival's not a little pink puffball", which consequently began another argument (and then brawl) over whose series was better.

In other words, it was a typical day in the Smash Bros. universe. The events of the Subspace Emissary were very far behind them now. Unfortunately, they were about to have a blast from the past.


	2. A New Begining

**[2]**

While the Smash Bros characters were celebrating, a lone building stood in the wastelands of the desert, a secret facility which had remained untouched during the events of the Subspace Emissary. The dimly lit room contained nothing but six chairs and a giant television screen. In this lone room were gathered five characters from distinctly different worlds, nearly as varied as the characters in the official Smash Bros universe. The low roof and crackling dim lights coupled with the moldy gray walls looked eerily prisonlike.

Soon enough, five of the six chairs were filled, leaving only one empty. No one seemed very eager to be here. The deathly silence that permeated throughout the room was even more disheartening. In order to break the silence, and to relieve his own anxiety, a small blue cyborg asked "So why are you guys here?"

"Why don't you tell us first, little blue man?" said an armored man with ruffled red hair and a blue cape. He also held a gold and silver sword and looked confident in himself.

The blue cyborg was not exactly in a position to argue, despite the blaster attached to his right arm, and timidly answered "Um, okay, I'm Megaman, and well, uh, this guy said I could get revenge against people who continually excluded me from an awesome event called Smash Brothers. I thought for sure I'd get a spot this time, now that they were including third party characters, but nooo, they all voted for that stupid Sonic the hedgehog."

"I know how you feel, little blue man. I was lucky enough to be included once, but then they kicked me out" He raised his sword, which flickered with light flames. He then turned to the blue cyborg named Megaman. "My name is Roy, by the way." Looking back at his sword, he muttered, "Those horrible people replaced me with a slower, stronger flame-sword wielder. I envy him and wish to destroy him with a burning passion."

"I agree! Nyeah! How could Wario get a spot in Smash Bros? While I'm stuck as an Assist Trophy, hardly ever showing up, and he's one of the highest rated characters in Brawl!" cut in a tall skinny purple man. "And if we're revealing names, people call me Waluigi."

"It appears that everyone is here because of revenge. How about you in the corner, what is your reason for coming?" asked an oddly shaped grayish pink animal, who seemed nearly human, but not quite so.

"Our host said he had information regarding the seven Chaos Emeralds" answered the black and red hedgehog, "He also hinted at an ultimate power even greater, which I must obtain at all costs."

"Ultimate power, eh? If anyone is obtaining this ultimate power, then it shall be me, the all powerful Mewtwo!" answered the creature, aptly named Mewtwo.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Mewtwo, for I am Shadow the hedgehog, the Ultimate Life Form, and if there is any ultimate power in this world, then it shall be in My possession!" indignantly replied the 'Ultimate Life Form', Shadow. He glared at the Mewtwo creature, preparing to do battle. Just as they were about to attack, the television screen lit up the room.

"Halt!" boomed a voice. Everyone froze at that moment. Suddenly the voice chuckled darkly, "You will all be perfect for my plan."

The five characters turned to each other in confusion.

"You five have been gathered here today because we all share a common goal. We are all here to get revenge on the characters of Super Smash Brothers, for one reason or another. We have all been either kicked out, given nearly useless parts, or just been completely left out of the game. Shadow, you may disagree, but deep inside, you know you envy the blue hedgehog for getting such a major role in the event, while you are assigned to the status of an Assist Trophy."

Shadow growled to himself "Continue."

"I have the power to grant you all your wishes. The smashers must know the wrong they have done to us! For now, they are completely oblivious to us, thinking we have all just left peacefully. But that is not the case. Soon, we shall rise and overtake the Smash Brothers universe!"

They all cheered (or merely grinned to themselves) so loud that even the deteriorating building seemed to shake with joy.

"But before we do that, you five must release me from my prison. There are five critical subspace bombs scattered about the world, which you must activate to release me. You five shall journey to the first three of these and unlock them. The fourth and fifth bombs will be harder to unlock, and will require all of your talents. However, do not despair; although I am unable to fight as of yet, I can still aid you in your quest. It may not be the ultimate power, but it will surely be enough to destroy most anyone in your way until I am released. Now, receive my generous gift!"

The room filled with even brighter light, and the five characters were lifted from their spots. They could each feel the magical energy of their host flowing into them, the strength, the power. As soon as their feet touched the ground, they knew they were many times stronger than before. And with this newfound energy, they set out on their most perilous quest to activate the five critical subspace bombs.


	3. Mewtwo's Revenge

**[3]**

Mewtwo closed his eyes as he stood on a pokéball shaped design at the center of a brand new stadium. A stadium to which he was not invited. He glared at nothing in particular as he thought of the Pokémon who replaced him, that stupid blue, not-even-legendary Pokémon they called Lucario. Clenching his fist, he fired a shadow ball directly at the screen behind him. He grinned to himself as sparks flew in every direction from the fiery explosion.

"Nyeah, Mewtwo! We're supposed to find the bombs, not destroy everything in sight! We can do that After we release the boss" said the tall skinny purple man, who had said his name was Waluigi earlier. "Besides, I hear someone coming, we gotta hide!"

"Mewtwo hides from no one!" he replied.

"You forget that this is a covert operation, we can't risk the smashers finding out who we are, now hide!"

Mewtwo grumbled in response, but teleported behind the destroyed screen with Waluigi.

"Let's just wait 'til they leave, then get the bomb that's hidden under the stadium."

Mewtwo nodded in response, then listened in on the newcomers.

"Gasp!" a person with a red hat and three Pokeballs on his waist stood frozen in amazement. "Who-? Wha-? Why?" He growled loudly then threw up his three Pokeballs. They released a blue turtle, a green plant like animal, and a large orange lizard with a flaming tail.

"Charizard, let's go!" he called as he climbed aboard the lizard, apparently named Charizard. They flew high into the air, then called down to his blue turtle, "Squirtle! Put out the fire!" which began spewing water from its mouth. "Ivysaur! Help me find the guys who did this, and vine whip 'em if you catch 'em!" The green plant nodded then ran off to search for the perpetrators.

Ivysaur's search brought him behind the destroyed screen, and directly towards the ready and waiting Mewtwo and Waluigi. Mewtwo quickly subdued him using Hypnosis before it could alert its trainer. They hid him behind the screen before going to ambush the Squirtle. Mewtwo quickly Hypnotized him as well.

_Onto the Charizard_,thought Mewtwo. The trainer was still using him to fly around, so they wouldn't be able to attack from the ground without running the risk of being seen. _And_ _Waluigi's absolutely useless_, Mewtwo sighed to himself.

"You stay behind and, uhh.. guard the bodies" commanded Mewtwo.

"Um, okay" replied Waluigi.

_That should keep the fool out of sight, while I fly behind the Charizard and shoot him out of the sky, _thought Mewtwo, already leaving the ground. He carefully flew behind Charizard for a while before getting him within Mewtwo's range. He charged up a Shadow Ball, and right before he could fire, he was struck by a Thunder.

"Gahh!" cried out Mewtwo as he was electrocuted, and began falling back to earth. He quickly regained his balance, then turned to face his attacker: A scrawny little Pikachu. Standing beside him was a Pichu. Mewtwo thought he had seen that Pichu somewhere before...

_That traitor!_ thought Mewtwo as he remembered.

"Charizard, use Fire Blast!" shouted the Pokémon Trainer, interrupting Mewtwo's curses against the tiny electric mouse.

Mewtwo turned again and barely dodged the lizard's blast, which flew past him and destroyed the rest of the broken down screen, revealing Squirtle, Ivysaur, and a very traumatized Waluigi.

Mewtwo growled and flew down to Waluigi, knowing he was outnumbered. He quickly Teleported away from the scene, leaving the rest of the Pokémon very angry.


	4. Pokemon Reunion

**[4]**

"Long time, no see, buddy." said the Pokémon Trainer as he turned towards Pikachu.

Pikachu nodded then jumped onto his shoulder, "Pikachu!"

"You can say that again" laughed Pokémon Trainer. He then regained a serious composure. "We have to find that Mewtwo and the weird purple guy. They destroyed our Stadium, now I vow to get revenge on them, I swear it on the name of Nash Katchin!" shouted 'Nash' to no one in particular.

Pikachu sighed and face-palmed inwardly, then jumped off of Nash's shoulders to talk to Pichu.

[Poké Speak Translation:]

"Looks like we didn't get here in time" sighed Pikachu.

"Don't worry, thanks to my eavesdropping, I found out where most of the bombs were. No way, I was gonna join that evil organization and destroy the land of Smash Bros. Besides, I'm fine with being replaced, it was way too much work fighting all the time" said Pichu.

"So you're sure there's a bomb under here?" asked Pikachu.

Pichu nodded in response.

"Alright then, I know a guy named Snake, I'm sure he could disarm it"

"Too bad there's no way for us to communicate with him. Mewtwo's the only one who could understand us, and he doesn't exactly seem friendly at the moment."

Pikachu grinned, "There's more than one Pokémon out there who can speak to the humans. Follow me!"

The Pokémon Trainer watched them babble in their weird Pokémon language with curiosity, not understanding a single word of it, but somehow knowing that it was vitally important. After a while of this, they ran off together.

"Pikachu!" it shouted to him, beckoning him to follow. He grinned and ran after Pikachu and Pichu, knowing that by following them, he would eventually find Mewtwo and the skinny purple man.

-Meanwhile-

"Nyeah! Hey Mewtwo, I think they're leaving!" announced Waluigi.

Mewtwo nodded silently, then quickly Teleported under the arena. "It's a surprise nobody noticed this down here." Mewtwo muttered to himself as he found a large subspace bomb capsule directly under the center of the arena. But then again, not many people would think to look under the stage, especially since the only way they could do that was by falling off the stage. In any case, Mewtwo flew under the bomb and quickly set off the countdown for ignition. Fortunately, these bombs did not require ROB's to be activated. Setting the timer to 1 minute, he Teleported away, picked up the useless Waluigi, then flew fast away from the Pokémon Stadium. Looking back, he could see a large purple sphere engulfing the entire stage. Soon, the entire Stadium was encased.

Mewtwo laughed maliciously as he thought of his master, and of how they were already 20 percent done.


	5. Battle on the Bridge of Eldin

**[5]**

Shadow stood on a cliff, overlooking the Hyrule Bridge, watching it being constantly destroyed and repaired every so often. However, he wasn't here for the repetitive bridge scene. He was biding his time, waiting for the signature blue blur to appear. Shadow knew of the Sonic's affinity to expansive maps. He'll show up eventually; he loved running long distances, checking out the landscape, and had other odd habits as well. Shadow never knew why the blue hedgehog loved chili dogs so much either.

In any case, an elf in green clothing soon appeared, riding a brown horse. The gremlin type creature who had continually bombed the bridge sat on a fat dark pig, holding a large sword, and facing the green elf on the other side of the bridge. He watched them charge at each other, the elf readying a bow, then shooting the gremlin, causing him to miss with his sword. He wondered why the gremlin didn't think of another plan, knowing this was pointless, and that he would lose every time. He shook his head in confusion, and just as he was about to leave, a flash of blue appeared in the corner of his eye.

The sonic boom was unmistakable; it was the blue hedgehog. It was Sonic.

He grinned as he warped behind the green elf, karate chopping him in the neck. The elf doubled over in an instant. He threw the body over the edge of the bridge, then simply waited for Sonic to run over the bridge.

"Shadow?" exclaimed Sonic in wonder as he appeared across the bridge from him. "Did Link use you as an Assist trophy?"

Shadow merely chuckled in response. "It's time to settle this, Sonic."

"Settle what?" he asked suspiciously.

"Chaos Spear!" was Shadow's only response, as a flash of yellow light appeared and struck the ground below Sonic, who quickly dodged away.

"Hey, watch out! That nearly hit me!" exclaimed Sonic.

"I know. I won't miss next time. Chaos Spear!" another flash of light came towards Sonic, who dodged it again.

"If this is what you want, I won't hold back!" shouted Sonic, who quickly ran towards Shadow, jumped in the air, and rolled into a ball, ready to use his Homing Attack.

Shadow did the same, becoming a black and red sphere with spikes and charged straight towards Sonic's light blue sphere. Sparks flew out as the two Homing Attacks collided in midair. Shadow chuckled as he landed softly, while his opponent was visibly hurt.

"It seems you've gotten stronger, Shadow, but you still won't win!"

Sonic ran straight towards Shadow, then quickly rolled into his spiked sphere, though Shadow merely dodged to one side.

"To quote you, Sonic: You're too slow!"

Shadow ran so fast at Sonic, that he practically teleported in front of him, then side-kicked him in his stomach. Before Sonic could fall to the ground, Shadow teleported behind him, elbowing him up into the air, then teleported over him, and strongly kicked him directly into the ground. Shadow walked up to the crater Sonic had made, waiting for the dust to clear. Although Sonic was absolutely stunned by Shadow's newfound speed, he didn't give up. Before the dust settled, Sonic ran up to and spin tackled Shadow, hurting him with his blue spikes. Shadow back-flipped and landed softly once again. Sonic seemed very tired and injured, kneeling to catch his breath.

Shadow laughed evilly "Looks like the end of the road for you, blue hedgehog. I am the ultimate life form, and not you or anyone else will be more powerful than me. Any last words, Sonic?"

Sonic surprisingly grinned, then pointed over Shadow's shoulder "Behind you." He gasped out.

Shadow turned to find a hook-type claw latch onto his face and drag him towards someone. The green elf stood before him, visibly mad at Shadow, glaring at him while holding him up by his white chest fur. The elf hit him with the handle of his sword a couple of times before back-kicking Shadow.

Shadow quickly got up and growled at his new opponent. The elf unsheathed his sword and took out his shield, ready to do battle.

"Chaos Spear!" shouted Shadow as he aimed at the elf. The light flew straight toward him, yet was deflected by his shield and struck Shadow instead. Shadow fell back, then got up once more, his patience wearing thin. He jumped up and used his dark Homing Attack on the elf, but was slashed at and deflected before he could get close. He growled loudly, then teleported back to the cliff in frustration.

_I can't fight them both at the same time. I'll need to rethink my strategy if I have to kill that elf as well. His shield deflects all projectiles, and his sword disallows me from getting close enough to strike him._

He growled to himself, then gasped and grinned as he thought of a plan. _There's more than one way to get what you want..._ He thought evilly as he teleported away.


	6. Meta Knight's Challenge

**[6]**

Link held his hand out to the blue hedgehog, helping him up. As Sonic got up, he shook his head wearily.

"That Shadow seemed like he was out for blood. I don't think he would've shown me any mercy. Thanks for helping me, I owe ya one"

Link nodded, then pointed his sword towards Super Mario Land.

"Good idea, we should tell Mario though, he'll know what to do. The three of us together can do anything; Tabuu taught us that much."

Link nodded once more then jumped onto his horse, named Epona, offering Sonic a ride.

Laughing, he answered, "Don't worry, I'm sure I can still- Aack!" exclaimed Sonic as he attempted to run, yet tripped and fell. Link rode over to him, overhearing some angry muttering about stupid game developers and their decision to include the ability to trip. Link offered Sonic a ride again.

Sonic hung his head low and sighed sadly as he nodded and accepted the ride. "Soon as I'm back to full health, I'm going back to running, alright?"

-Later-

After a while of traveling, they came to Hyrule Temple, one of the transportation points which could transport them to any other stage. They rode down to the old ruins, specifically to the one floating ruin near the bottom of the stage. As they got to the Battle Arena [which they nicknamed the center portion of the stage, where combatants could get heavily damaged, yet not die easily] they found a blue cyborg-type thing. It looked at them once, then jumped down towards the ruins and teleported away. Sonic and Link exchanged glances then shrugged, about to do the same when something teleported directly in front of them, scaring Epona, who leaned back and caused them both to fall off. She then ran away from the dark winged puffball.

"Well there goes our ride" grumbled Sonic. "Hey, what's the big idea?"

The dark winged puffball ignored Sonic, turning towards Link, "I hear you are a good swordsman. Therefore, I must challenge you to a duel!" The puffball took out a small yellow sword with two spikes on each side. He quickly slashed the air in front of him, demonstrating the agility of his blade.

"You want to battle Link? We don't even know your name!" exclaimed Sonic.

"My name is Meta Knight. Wough!" He disappeared into his dark wings, which doubled as a cape, then reappeared behind them.

"Hmm, ya think you're fast? I'd challenge you if I hadn't just gotten out of a match just now."

Meta Knight shook his head, "I do not fight porcupines."

"I'm a hedgehog, and don't you forget it, bud!"

"No matter. I fight only swordsmen. Link! Draw your sword and we shall match blades!"

Link nodded and unsheathed his shield and sword, ready for battle.

Sonic hmph'ed, then went to sit next to the ruins. "I hate delays."


	7. Return of Ganondorf

**[7]**

Ganondorf looked over the landscape from Hyrule Castle (his evil alternate version) mulling over his next plan for world domination, and how to achieve it. The results of the Subspace Emissary really shook his trust in other villains. How could he know who wasn't being controlled by someone else?

As soon as everything had settled down, he immediately cut off his contact with the rest of them. This was the first time he had looked out on the world with a feeling which seemed less than hate.

Then suddenly, he saw the figure of Link, riding towards the Hyrule Temple. His heart immediately blackened again; his deeply rooted hatred for the elf had instilled in him a sense of destruction. He had the chance to destroy him in subspace, but chose not to, seeing the greater evil of Tabuu looming over them. He regretted it now, and made up his mind to destroy Link.

-Later-

Upon reaching the Hyrule Temple, he inspected the scene. Link was in combat with another swordsman, while a blue hedgehog lay watching nearby, visibly impatient. He had seen the blue smudge on Link's horse while riding here, and knew they were traveling together. He also knew Sonic would never resort to riding a horse unless he was hurt in some way.

Quickly but quietly, he snuck up to the injured hedgehog and knocked him out with a swift punch to the head. The swordsmen were way too engrossed in their battle to notice the disappearance of their quippy friend. Ganondorf grinned evilly to himself and disappeared with hedgehog in hand.

-Later-er-

Link had been fighting Meta Knight for little over twenty minutes, yet neither of them had died yet. There was no swift finishing blow, no final strike, and no easy victory for either of them. By this point, their stamina was nearing 200%, but still neither swordsman could connect with a strong enough attack to end the match.

Meta Knight huffed heavily after another failed kill strike. Link seemed to know exactly when to dodge, when to parry, and when to counter. Link really kept him on his toes.

"Link!" He called over to him, making a T with his hands "Timeout!"

Link nodded in response and kneeled down to catch his breath, his sword at his side.

"You are indeed a skilled swordsmen. It's hard to believe neither of us has won yet." He let out a deep breath, then looked around. "By the way... Where's Sonic?"

Link immediately looked around as well, then stood up, drawing his sword. He stepped cautiously towards the ruins. Soon, a triangular mark on the back of his hand, named the Triforce of Courage began to glow brightly. He immediately knew where Sonic was taken.

"Do you know where he is?" asked Meta Knight, seeing the blank look on Link's face.

Link nodded and pointed towards Hyrule Castle, the evil version created in the alternate universe of Ocarina of time, the one where Ganondorf lived.

He pulled out two Heart Containers (which he always carried for occasions just like this) passing one to Meta Knight, and absorbing the other for himself.

Meta Knight did the same, then took Link and teleported towards the dark, ominous castle.


	8. The Last Song

**[8]**

Ganondorf's castle wasn't very different than every other evil castle in existence. Dark clouds looming overhead completely blocking out the sun, black castle made of dark brick, moat of lava surrounding the castle, deserted landscape all around the castle. The only difference between Ganondorf's castle and every other castle in existence was its outstanding lack of bridge.

They glanced towards each other quickly, then at the deep chasm of lava between them and the castle.

"How did you get through the first time?" asked Meta Knight.

Link thought of the sages and their rainbow bridge. Unfortunately, they didn't exist in this world. Link shook his head.

Meta Knight sighed, "I suppose I could fly you across.." He unfurled his wings, picked up Link... then dropped him.

"Ungh!" grunted Link as he got up.

"Uhh, sorry. You're too heavy, drop some items" said Meta Knight with little to no remorse for dropping Link.

Link sighed and dropped a few of his valuable items, including his Iron Boots, Clawshots and Mirror Shield, among others. Meta Knight 'helped' as well, making sure he only brought important light items. He forced him to drop Ooccoo, the Bottles and the Magic Beans. As Link dropped his last item, Meta Knight stopped him, pulling out his Ocarina of Time.

"Can you play this?" he asked.

Link nodded, taking the Ocarina and began to play Saria's Song.

Meta Knight grinned and bobbed his head/body to the beat. When the song finished, he laughed, "We could just play that song and kill them while they're dancing."

Link smiled, then got serious, putting away the Ocarina.

Meta Knight became serious as well, nodding curtly to his ally, "Ready?"

Link nodded and was picked up and flown over the moat of lava. Hopefully, that song wouldn't be the last they heard.


	9. Quick Confrontation

**[9]**

After examining the interior of Ganon's castle (which was just as dark and ominous on the inside as the outside), they ran into the stone elevator that magically raised them to Ganondorf's evil chamber.

There, they found a tall dark chair in front of a huge organ. A long eerie note from the organ echoed throughout the room as the chair spun around. They gasped in shock as they found Shadow the hedgehog sitting there.

Before they could react, Shadow teleported up to Link and punched him back into the elevator. Meta Knight attempted to slash him multiple times with his Galaxia sword, but Shadow was able to dodge every time and quickly counterattacked with a spin attack, sending him against the wall.

Shadow then ducked under a Fire Arrow show by Link, who was quickly reloading. Link shot another arrow, but Shadow teleported behind him and roundhouse kicked him into the room again.

Teleporting above him, Shadow sent a Chaos Spear down at Link. But before the Chaos Spear could make contact, it was deflected by Meta Knight's cape. Meta Knight flew up to Shadow to counterattack with his blade, but Shadow teleported away again.

Meta Knight flew down to Link's side, then stood back to back, looking around frantically for their enemy.  
Shadow reappeared directly above them, whispering "Chaos... " then yelling "Blast!", sending said blast straight down at the two swordsmen, effectively separating them. He then teleported behind them, kicking Link's legs out from under him, then turning to send a Chaos Spear towards Meta Knight.  
He was just able to block the projectile with his cape before being kicked against the wall. Shadow sent another Chaos Blast at him; Meta Knight had no time to dodge before the blast sent him flying through the wall and completely outside the castle.

Shadow laughed maliciously before floating down to the fallen Link and lifting him up with one hand. Link was practically unconscious and had no strength left to struggle against Shadow. Shadow was about to finish him with a Chaos Spear directly across his neck, but from somewhere in the room, Zelda used Dyn's Fire, conjuring a ball of fire which exploded in Shadow's face. Zelda then used Farore's Wind to magically teleport Link to a much safer castle.

Shadow got up and immediately used the Chaos Spear on Zelda inside her cage, sending her against the wall and knocking her out.

"That's what you get for saving your boyfriend. Next time, you better hope you don't interfere."


	10. Link's Awakening

**[10]**

Link sat up drowsily, then took a sharp breath as he felt the soreness spike through him. Although his body was painfully aware, his mind was still waking up. He tried to remember why he was so sore, then remembered the failed attack on Ganon's castle. Shadow was there, and completely destroyed both him and Meta Knight. He tried to remember how he ended up here, but couldn't.

And where exactly was 'here' to begin with?

He opened his eyes and saw a green dinosaur looking down at him. Link remembered that dinosaur, his name was-

"Yoshi!" cheerfully shouted the aptly named Yoshi as he noticed the waking Link.

"Oh, so you're awake" said Peach as she walked over to him.

At this point, Link looked around the room; it was bright and colorful, with little mushroom-like Goombas along the walls. Along with Peach and Yoshi, he found Mario in a doctor's outfit, and Luigi.

Dr. Mario raised his fist to the sky and made a pose, "Its-a-Mario time!" He quickly shot pills at Link, which were somehow absorbed through his clothes and skin and made their way into his bloodstream. Link felt his body lose its soreness, and was easily at full health again.

As soon as he was recharged, he told the Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants his story; he told them of Shadow, Sonic, Ganondorf, and Meta Knight. They had to find Meta Knight, save Sonic, and bring the forces of evil to justice.

Mario rose to the call of duty, with an excited "Here we go!" making yet another pose. He then left the room to prepare for his next adventure. Link quickly followed suit. Yoshi was about to leave the room, but noticed that Luigi was missing.

He went back inside to investigate and soon found him hiding in the closet, "Yoshi?"

"Oh no!" he cried.

"Yoshi!" exclaimed the green dinosaur before dragging him off with the others.

Peach stayed behind, as usual, while Mario and the others went off an epic adventure. She sighed sadly as she sat on the bed. She blinked then got up, finding a note on the bed. "Link must've dropped this" The note was blank, yet as soon as she touched it, words began to form on the note. She widened her eyes in astonishment as she read the magical note:

"Dear Peach,

I thank the gods this note has reached you safely. I'm sure Link has already told you the story about Ganondorf and Shadow, but what he does not know is that I am also trapped in the castle, along with the blue hedgehog. I was the one who helped Link escape the first time, and now I need your help. Sonic and I are being held in separate cages, and if they only go to save Sonic, I shall be left behind. You must save me, Peach. Remember what I taught you, and may the gods be with you.

-Zelda"

She grinned at this opportunity. She had two choices now; She could decide to tell Mario about Zelda, and let him and the other save her, or... She could go on her own journey and save Zelda herself. Since she was never allowed to go on journeys by herself anymore, she chose easily.

Now all she needed was a little wardrobe change...

**[Random A/N- Something I just thought of, that other people may be wondering is why Sonic and Link could easily stand against Shadow at the Bridge of Eldin, while Meta Knight and Link were easily pwned at Ganon's Castle. Even if you weren't wondering before, you are now . It's basically just home-field advantage; Link is much stronger on the bridge than he is at the castle. Shadow gets home-field advantage off any dark place really, so he's a lot stronger here. Also, Link and Sonic were defending in the first battle, while Shadow was defending in the second (if you've played any RTS game, you know about strong defenses easily taking out armies (thinks of Zerglings being utterly destroyed by rows of Photon Cannons, lol) So that's about it, what a long note. Oh well, this was a short filler episode anyways, so I'm off, cyaa~]**


	11. Meta Knight's New Team

**[11]**

Meta Knight groaned as he got up, completely exhausted. He blinked through bleary eyes and stared up at the crowd around him. He quickly widened his eyes and jumped up, readying his sword to attack any possible enemies. As his eyes refocused, he found no enemies, but many Pokémon. He stared at the one standing before him; the one he had gone on adventure with before, during the Subspace Emissary.

"Are you alright?" asked Lucario, a tall, blue, dog-like creature.

Meta Knight nodded once, then looked around at the rest of them. There was a small yellow mouse-type creature, "Pikachu!" it exclaimed happily; a smaller yellow mouse, similar to the first, who exclaimed happily, "Pichu!"; and the last was not a Pokémon at all, but a human.

"Hey, I'm Nash, and who are you? And how'd you get here? And why are you all beat up?" asked the human in rapid short sentences. Pikachu gently pushed him away, giving Meta Knight some room to breathe.

"My name is Meta Knight; Link and I were attacked by Shadow in Ganon's Castle."

They all widened their eyes, quickly exchanging glances before Pichu stepped up and exclaimed, "Chu! Pichupi!"

Meta Knight blinked, as he couldn't understand Pokémon speak.

Lucario noticed and quickly translated: "He said 'We need to hurry up! Pokémon Stadium 2 was just destroyed by Mewtwo and Waluigi!'"

Through Lucario, Pichu explained the problem of the subspace bombs to Meta Knight and the rest of them. There were 5 bombs that, when activated, had the power to revive Tabuu.

Meta Knight nodded in understanding, then took charge of his new Pokémon team, "Alright then, we'll cover more ground if we split up; Pikachu and Pichu, you two go with Lucario as your translator to relay the problem to Snake, he'll be able to help us. Me and..." he shuddered for a second "Nash shall go search for Link, and possibly acquire more followers to our cause. When we're done, we'll all meet up outside Ganon's Castle. Got it?"

Everybody nodded in agreement, and they all split up to fulfill their respective missions.


	12. Greeting the Last Two Villains

**[12]**

"I don't know about this, Roy...I just...don't know about this" said an extremely nervous Megaman. He had a good reason to be nervous though; he was hanging precariously from the Green Greens stage, with nothing but Sticky Bombs binding him to the land above. Below him lay a long drop to a very painful warp portal.

"Don't worry about it, little blue man, I am absolutely certain we are safe!" confidently yelled back Roy, a few feet ahead of Megaman, yet felt completely relaxed in the situation. "I believe you worry too much" said Roy as he stuck his tongue out at him.

Megaman shook his head, wondering just how crazy Roy was. He gulped as he took another step closer to their target.

The subspace bomb lay just ahead of them, practically within reach.

At this point, Megaman suddenly cried out, "Wait a minute! It only takes one of us to activate the bomb! Why did I have to go down too?"

Roy grinned to himself, hoping Megaman couldn't see. "Oh, well that's just too bad. But you should feel honored about embarking on such an adventure with Prince Roy!"

Megaman groaned to himself, then hurried to catch up to Roy. "Just hurry up and set off the bomb before someone shows up."

And right on cue, Kirby popped up and waved his arms frantically at them "Hiii!" He was very excited about meeting new friends.

Megaman yelped in surprise, accidentally setting off his sticky bombs, which exploded and set off Roy's sticky bombs, which quickly exploded them both off the stage. "You foooool...!" trailed Roy's voice.

Kirby watched them fall, very far down, questioningly going, "Poyo?"

"Kirby.. Come hither..." said the magical Whispy Woods tree at the center of the stage. Kirby quickly flew up to Whispy Woods, "There are malevolent demons about who wish to plague our land with their evils. You must stop them, Kirby. You must journey forth to the corrupt version of the great castle of Hyrule. There lies much evil. Hurry now, Kirby..."

Kirby nodded, and quickly floated away to Ganon's Castle, the only evil corrupt version of Hyrule castle. He ventured a glance down at his new friends, who were still falling painfully through the magic portal. He wondered if he would ever meet them again, before floating fast away from Whispy Woods.

-Later-

Megaman was safely atop Green Greens, sighing happily to himself. After going through the painful ordeal of exploding, and falling thousands of miles, he was happy to be alive. Meanwhile, Roy was under the stage, again attempting to set off the Subspace Bomb.

"I do believe you should've tried this again, little blue man. The exhilarating feeling of being upside-down just makes one want to yell in joy. Woo!" shouted Roy as he raising a fist upwards (or downwards, depending on the perspective)

Megaman shook his head at Roy, "You are insanely crazy."

Roy ignored the comment as he resumed the activation of the bomb. Megaman soon grew bored then fell asleep. He never noticed Whispy Woods slowly blowing him to the edge of the stage. Although the old tree didn't have the power to directly attack characters, he could set them up for lethal falls. It was the least he could do; they Were about to blow him up, weren't they?

Roy set the timer for five minutes, successfully activating the bomb "Alright Megaman, the bomb has been activated, let us leave at once!"

Megaman yawned, "Kay kay!" he answered as he took a step forward, and felt nothing but air. He blinked, noticing there was no land in front of him. He took a moment to contemplate how he could've gotten to the edge of the stage. Roy did take a long time, he could've just placed him there. He mulled over the ideas, before remembering that this was a great waste of time; he was going to fall either way.

"Ahhhhh!" he yelled as he fell another painful thousand miles.

Roy looked down at his falling partner, then shrugged, a grin slowly forming upon his face. He raised his fists up to the sky and dived after Megaman, yelling in joy, "Wooooo!" while Green Greens was slowly engulfed by the darkness of the subspace bomb behind them.


	13. Shadow's Soliloquy

**[13]**

Shadow stood near one of the windows of his new castle, his arms crossed, his brow furrowed in deep thought. Not that anyone else could tell from watching him, but he was planning his next move. He currently knew three things concerning his mission:

1. He and Ganondorf had an alliance; Ganondorf had Sonic prisoner, and Shadow had Zelda. It was pretty easy to figure out that they had common revenge schemes.

2. There was a subspace bomb somewhere in this castle.

And 3. He would have to betray Ganondorf eventually.

As much as he liked this castle, and working with someone who was actually almost as strong as himself, he still had deeper revenge goals. After setting Tabuu free, he would be granted the ultimate power. Then he would betray Tabuu himself, and take the power of every other being in the universe. He would finally be the Ultimate Life Form.

He chuckled to himself as he thought through his plans, but soon stopped. Before any of that could occur, he would still have to figure out a way to find the subspace bomb in this castle without alerting Ganondorf to his deeper motives.

As strong as Shadow himself was, he wanted to avoid any confrontations with Ganondorf. The worst possible thing that could happen was that he and Ganondorf fought among themselves (with Shadow as the victor, of course) and were found by any other smashers. After defeating Ganondorf, Shadow would be in a weak and incapacitated state, unable to fight off another character. His plans of universal domination would then be ground to a halt. He could not let that happen.

He had to wait until the time was right, and strike when Ganondorf least expected it. He thought of the bat, Rouge, from his home world, grinning at how she had constantly struck when everyone was distracted, how she easily stole the Chaos Emeralds from under everyone's noses. He knew when to attack, he just needed a good distraction. He almost wished this castle would be attacked by the 'good guys' soon, just to cause mayhem and chaos.

Just then, as if to answer his prayers, he heard an explosion from outside the castle. He teleported to the roof and looked down at the cause of the explosion, then grinned evilly to himself.

Just outside the castle stood three Pokémon freaks and a tall slender man wearing full camo. He wondered exactly how they had gotten over the moat of lava, but quickly brushed aside the thought. He had hoped for 'good guys', and these vermin would just have to make do.


	14. Storming the Castle

**[14]**

Snake grinned to himself. There was nothing he loved more than storming the castle.

Pikachu and Pichu exchanged fearful glances. They weren't so sure they should be this loud, especially without backup. They each muttered to themselves that they should've waited for Meta Knight and the others...

Lucario was nonchalant about the whole thing. His expressionless face showed no fear. He was ready to fight to the death, should any hostiles appear.

Snake set off another bomb, chuckling darkly. When the smoke cleared, their way was open. Snake motioned to the Pokémon to follow him, although two of them were less than confident.

Lucario tapped Snake's shoulder "Snake, wait up a sec."

"What? Don't tell me you're having second thoughts like the rest of these wimps." He pointed a thumb to the two yellow mice behind him.

Lucario shook his head, "I am completely confident in my own combat skills, as I am in yours, but still we may need backup. I won't ask you to wait for the others, as I'm sure you will refuse. But I will ask you to send up a flare before we go any further into the demon's lair."

Snake mulled this over for a second, stroking his chin, "Hmm... That's actually a good idea. Wait here, I'll be right back. And you" he pointed to one of the yellow mice, Pikachu, "Tell that one to stop whimpering." He pointed towards the smaller yellow mouse. "We're going deeper into the castle whether he likes it or not, so tell him to get over his fears and suck it up."

Snake then ran outside to send out the flare. He had a special one, just for the occasion; it would stay up for an exceptionally long time. Though his enemies would see the flare as well, he was sure they already knew he was here.

When he returned to the castle, he grinned at the little yellow mouse, who had stopped whimpering, and wore a slightly angry face, a face that showed it was ready for battle. He gave it a quick thumbs-up, then led his team of Pokémon deeper into the castle.

**[AN- Umm... If the titles are unecessary, or dumb or something, tell me, cuz it's hard to think up a good title for every chapter, and if they're sucking anyways.. . So yesh, anyone who reads this far should comment and stuff, cuz comments and stuff are cool, I've gotten 5 so far, and they really make me wanna actually finish the story :D So yup, cya, I probably won't put any more Author's Notes throughout this story, maybe a couple more, very rarely. I dont like interfering with the story =P So anyways, cyaa~]**


	15. The Epicenter of Destruction

**[15]**

Our heroes had not ventured far out of the Mushroom Kingdom before they turned to find a large smoking flare rising from Ganon's Castle, which quickly exploded into a frenzy of fireworks. Exchanging quick and short glances with each other, Mario and Link silently nodded and began leading their pack to venture towards said castle.

-Meanwhile-

Whilst journeying through Hyrule Field, Meta Knight suddenly stopped, causing Nash to nearly run into him. Before Nash could question Meta Knight, he pointed up at the large fireworks display above Ganon's Castle.

"Such a grand display, surely Link would be attracted to it and rush to the scene. We must do the same if we are to meet up with him" said Meta Knight.

Nash thought for a second, then nodded in agreement, "Alright, if you think so, then let's go!"

-Meanwhile-er-

High above the Smash Bros universe lay the heavens, the home of Pit. Although Pit himself had not been home in a while, his reflective pool recorded everything that had occurred. When he came home from sparring with Marth, he saw the pandemonium and chaos in the world. His reflective pool showed him the fall and consumption of Pokémon Stadium 2 and Whispy Woods, both of which were brought into the Subspace world. Quickly realizing that the world of Smash Bros was once again in danger, he decided to journey back down and help his friends.

He knew where they were all headed, to the hub of the madness; Ganon's Castle.

**[A/N- Ughhhh! I know EXACTLY where I wanna continue with the story, but I just can't can't describe what I want correctly! . I have this amazing part that I wanna include, but I can't describe it correctly, I need to draw out the scene before I can write about it. And I'm not exactly the best drawer around, this may take some more time. I apologize to anyone keeping up with EPIC Smash Bros, but I just CAN'T continue the story without getting this one part perfect. I'm sure you'll all like it when it's done though, I promise the wait will be worth it! :D It will be completely unexpected, I hope, lol]**

**[Edit: This is basically a filler chapter, now that I think about it, lol. Oh yeah, read on, I posted more :D ]  
**


	16. Surprise!

**[16]**

Shadow teleported to the top floor of Ganon's Castle, portraying himself as slightly panicky, though an air of nonchalance constantly radiated from his presence. Pressing his normally low grumble to a slightly higher pitched tone, he asked Ganondorf "I'm sure you've heard all the commotion by now. What are we gonna do about them?"

Ganondorf merely grinned and replied with "Nothing at all" He also sensed the hastiness in his voice, yet quickly caught on to Shadow's ploy. Ganon was sure the hedgehog was not as panicky as he was attempting to appear. To Ganondorf's keen sense of perception, the act seemed quite sarcastic. A bubble of distrust boiled within him, and he began to question his alliance with the hedgehog.

Shadow noticed the slight rise in tension in the room. The effect would be imperceivable to most other characters, but Shadow was finely attuned to the space-time continuum. It came with being a teleportative hedgehog. Shadow innocently continued his act, tilting his head to one side questioningly.

Ganondorf led him to a series of screens, each of a different part of the castle. Snake and the Pokemon were easily visible running across the different screens. Shadow turned to face Ganon, "So what's your plan?"

Ganondorf grinned evilly "Well let's just say they're not the only ones with Pokemon on their side." He chuckled darkly as he thought of their impending doom.

-Meanwhile Once Again-

Snake's previous (relative) cheerfulness had quickly died down now that he was quite deep in enemy territory. The long elevator had certainly sapped of him of any happiness. He was now completely focused on the task at hand: a double assassination. Seeking out his targets, he ran down the hallway, searching in every crevice while the Pokemon bravely followed behind him. Although he was used to working alone, he appreciated having them as backup. He would certainly need it, since they were so obviously about to walk into a trap. _They'd never let us in so easily..._ Snake was only slightly worried, as his rocket launcher could easily blow up anything in its way.

Pikachu and Pichu both had on their war faces, preparing to electrocute any enemies who dared get near their party. Lucario was calm and collected as always, though his muscles were very much tensed. Lucario also knew of the impending trap, but was worried for a far different reason. Generally, using the power of aura, he could sense any nearby beings, friendly or not. Right now, however, he couldn't sense a thing._ It didn't make any sense... _In every direction, there was nothing but aura-less empty space. _What could they be planning..._

The hallway soon came to a end, with only one remaining room left to search. This scene has been depicted many times before... As the beginning of a journey, or the end of an adventure. This was the room at the top of the the castle. As always, there is but a lone tall chair and a piano in a huge lone room, with a red carpet leading down the hall.

Snake wasted no time at all. In seconds, he fired a rocket directly at the chair. Now at this point in time, someone may assume that one of a number of things would happen. Snake's first thought would be that of an exploded Ganondorf head. Lucario, being more logical, expected Shadow to appear and destroy the rocket. Pikachu and Pichu (being somewhat afraid of tall, dark strangers with evil magic and a castle with a moat of lava) expected Ganondorf to take the hit directly, and continue walking as if nothing had happened. They shuddered at the thought.

Now that is what they assume will happen. Let us remember that life is full of surprises. What nobody expected, however, would be a random Pokéball shooting straight towards the rocket. The Pokémon that appeared was, quite horrifyingly, a Wobbuffet, who used Counter, and immediately sent the rocket straight back towards the party at double speed.

They were frozen in shock, both at the completely random blue blob of a Pokémon appearing and the fact that it deflected the rocket. The only one who was able to react in time was Lucario, who used ExtremeSpeed to dodge the rocket, carrying them all to safety.

They all turned back at the Wobbuffet, Lucario thinking it would be an easy battle with his Psychic attacks, but their hopes were soon dashed as they saw the shadow of the owner of the Wobbuffet.

From the shadows, an enormous green metallic dragon burst free, threateningly swooping down at the party. As it came in close, they were able to see the monstrous being in all its dreadful glory, down to its bright glowing red eyes.

The monster clearly resembled Rayquaza in shape, but was quite larger than the one Diddy Kong and Fox fought against at the lake, and completely encased in emerald colored metal, with golden lines crawling along its body. It also had a glowing metal chest piece, seemingly the engine running the monster. There were also 2 long, half-organic, half-metallic wings stretching behind it. Its body glowed eerily as it raised its massive jaw to charge an attack, which it wasted no time in unleashing.

At this point, the heroes stopped staring and scattered away from the blast. Pikachu and Pichu quickly attempted to use their Thunderbolt to subdue the creature, but were blocked by its huge, muscular arms.

Snake was the only one who realized with creeping horror what this monstrosity was. Ganondorf must've somehow repaired and recombined both the Rayquaza creature, and Meta Ridley. Samus had mentioned the nefarious enemy a few times, but he never thought he'd see it in battle, after hearing of its demise at the Bomb Factory in the Subspace Emissary. He was almost excited to fight.

But that wasn't all. In addition to its recombination and mechanical upgrades, it had one more thing that made its other features look like child's play. It brought up its right arm and somehow transformed it into a cannon of sorts, and began firing Pokéballs at our heroes. If anyone was thinking that it couldn't possibly get any worse, then it just did.

**[A/N- Finally posted something! I hope it's good v.v I'll post the fight scene soon, now that I've got it all mapped out, it shouldn't take long :D]**


	17. The Midboss Battle

**[17]**

The beast, which we'll call Metaquaza, shot three more Pokéballs, all containing Wobbuffets, which now tipped the odds in favor of the enemy. This wouldn't discourage our heroes, however, who quickly attempted to dispatch the blue bulbous creatures.

Lucario used Aura Sphere! Wobbuffet used Mirror Coat! The ball of aura was sent flying back at Lucario, who barely managed to dodge in time. Lucario then ran up to the Wobbuffet, aura ball in hand and punched him in the face! Unfortunately, the Wobbuffet took minimal damage and used Counter, knocking Lucario back.

The other characters were having similar problems, unable to get through the defenses of these indestructibly rotund Pokemon. And worst of all was the fact that Metaquaza was charging another Hyper Beam.

Pichu widened his eyes as he saw the beam approaching. He stood frozen in place, unable to dodge, unable to move. He shut his eyes tight, feeling his impending doom, when the room suddenly went upside down. He opened his eyes and found Snake. Pichu's eyes welled up in gratitude for his savior.

Snake stared into Pichu's eyes for a second, then grumbled a bit and got up, dropping Pichu in the process. "Be more careful next time" he said before returning to the battle.

Pichu whined a bit and rubbed his head before following Snake.

Lucario thought quickly and charged another Aura Sphere, aiming this one at the ground beneath Wobbuffet. It yelled its name as it fell into the floor beneath them.

Metaquaza then turned its attention to Lucario, seeing him as the greatest threat. Lucario knew it was being watched and dodged an incoming Hyper Beam, then began charging towards Metaquaza.

The beast summoned a scope, which attached to his eye and began recording the movements of its enemy. Lucario sent an Aura Sphere toward Metaquaza, but was easily dodged. Metaquaza then countered with Mimic, producing an Aura Sphere of its own hurtling towards Lucario.

Lucario backflipped twice and dodged the blast, needing to rethink his strategy. He knew that the longer he stayed in battle with the creature, the harder the battle would be. He had to stop this fight from dragging on too long with one decisive unexpected attack.

Nearby, Snake had gotten rid of his Wobbuffet as well, and was helping the electric mice now. Lucario had to stall for a while, until his allies could muster the strength for an attack.

Lucario jumped high into the air, dodging multiple Aura Sphere's from Metaquaza, then suddenly dropped down onto his nose, aura punching him multiple times before being swatted away.

He landed quietly, then quickly backflipped away from the beast. Metaquaza roared in anger, and began hurtling towards Lucario at high speed. Lucario easily sidedodged the attack. While Metaquaza circled around, Lucario charged up and tossed several Aura Spheres, though the blasts did seemingly no damage at all.

Lucario jumped up at the last second, and Metaquaza met a missile facefirst. Snake chuckled lowly as the monster fell beside him. He kicked open the creatures mouth and tossed a few grenades down its throat and ran away.

A muffled explosion could be heard as the creature shrieked in agony. Though the fight appeared to be won, Snake wasn't taking any chances. He brought his rocket launcher and fired multiple times at the beast, as Lucario shot Aura Spheres, and the electric mice used Thunder. Smoke filled the room as the attacks simultaneously connected with the creature's body.

As the smoke cleared, Metaquaza's body was nowhere to be found. Our heroes had seemingly won this battle and cheered. Snake was far from elated. _A creature like that can't have died so easily..._He was wary as he searched the room, then looked up in horror. This battle was far from over.

Grinning evilly down at our heroes flew the "defeated" Metaquaza. A loud shriek was emitted from its metallic throat, piercing through their very souls. The metallic coating fell off the creature as if it were merely shedding its skin, which glowed as it used Recover and healed any damage they might have inflicted.

It shrunk a bit, but seemed no less powerful. Rather, it seemed to become even stronger, with deadly speed. It soon demonstrated that speed, abruptly charging towards them and swatting them across the room.  
Lucario was the first to stand, quickly using Double Team to create duplicates of himself. The Lucario duplicates then began charging and firing Aura Spheres at the monster. Snake followed up by using his Cypher (mini air lift vehicle) to fly up and drop mines directly onto Metaquaza's body, hopefully weakening him, or at the very least, further dividing his attention.

In one corner of the room, Pikachu and Pichu made their stand. While the others distracted him, the two electric mice would charge one final electric attack.

Unfortunately, Metaquaza could see them from the corner of his eye. As soon as they were ready, they released the built up electricity in one final burst as Lucario and Snake jumped to either side. Metaquaza simply absorbed the hit and seem to become even stronger. It growl-laughed, "My turn" and rapidly shot two Shadow Balls and a Hyper Beam, taking out all four of our them at once.

The battle was all but lost for our heroes, as Metaquaza flew over them, ready to utterly annihilate them, until he heard a very familiar voice.

"Grrr! Let's-a-go!" shouted Mario as he led his pack into the battle.

**[A/N So there it is: Metaquaza. That name is actually pending official acceptance as there might be a better name out there for this hybrid (hence the poll on my profile), if ya can think of a better name, PM me or put it in a comment or something, por favor! :o Also, this battle couldn't possibly end so quickly, I mean Pikachu didn't even get a line, which I just noticed! D: I might edit this and make it longer to include a bit more fighting, before the next chapter :D]**

**[Edit: Made this chapter longer so all the fighting's in one chapter and changed the cliffhanger lol. I couldn't write enough for another chapter, and I still haven't really included a good part for Pikachu! DX I think I've got something good in store for him, so keep your eye on the larger of the two electric mice ;P ]  
**


	18. Saviors! Or not

**[18]**

Without a moment's hesitation, Mario rushed to to his friend's aid. He quickly shot two fireballs at Metaquaza. Link came right behind Mario, throwing his boomerang in a wide arc around the creature, attempting to confuse it. Then Yoshi ran onto the scene and took out his arsenal of eggs, tossing them at the creature.

Lastly, Luigi came into the room, fists a flailing. However, the second he got a look at Metaquaza, he and his fists hurriedly left the room. "Wack!"

Mario turned for a second to retrieve his brother "Luigi!" but was swatted away by a Metaquaza wing in his distraction.

"Mariooo!" Luigi rushed back into the room, to his brother's side and handed him a raccoon suit, which Mario gladly put on. "Here we go!" With a run, hop and jump, he flew back into action and slapped Metaquaza's nose with his newly found raccoon tail.

Though Metaquaza attempted to return the favor, he could not catch up to the speedy plumber. This allowed Link to attach a bomb to an arrow, take aim, and fire the explosive device into Metquaza's eye.

It shrieked in agony, then fired a Hyper Beam at Link, who barely brought up his shield in time. Even through his defense, he was shot back a great distance.

Luigi quivered in fear at the beast's awesome power, wondering how they would ever defeat such a creature. He then clenched his fists and motivated himself to do something about it. _Surely with enough of us attacking him..._

He ran around the room, feeding Mushrooms to the fallen heroes. With everyone on their feet and ready to battle, they'd have a fighting chance!

Pikachu struggled to look up and watch the battle. Though they'd been saved, they were nowhere near safe. Luigi handed him a Mushroom, which Pikachu gratefully ate. Suddenly, he was re-energized, and looking around, he saw the rest of them rise to action as well. He grinned and nodded to Luigi, "Pikachu!" ready to fight!

"Link, you have any more bombs?" asked Snake.

Link shook his head in dismay. He had left most of them in their first attempt to infiltrate the castle. "Use this then" Snake tossed him his pack of mines. "Aim for his wings first, we need to slow him down" Snake knew neither explosives nor arrows alone could damage the creature, but together, the arrow would pierce the skin, thus allowing the explosive to do some damage.

Snake, along with Mario and Yoshi, would be able to distract the creature long enough for Link to take out his wings, just as he took out his eye.

However, Metqauaza wasn't going to let them beat him so easily. It hurled a shadow ball at Link before he could prepare his bow. Being the fastest among them, Pikachu jumped and Iron Tailed the shadow ball in midair. Pichu quickly followed up with an Iron Tail of its own, slapping Metaquaza's nose once again, then ran off before he could react.

Mario and the others followed suit, not allowing Metaquaza to get a good shot at the elf. Link fired the makeshift bomb arrow, and direct hit! It blasted off the creature's right wing!

Shrieking in agony, it fell to the ground, half-wingless. The tide of the battle was beginning to turn!

Though the creature did not need wings to fly, it would no longer be able to stay in the air indefinitely, meaning there'd be more ground time, plus it'd be easier to hit.

Metaquaza soon regained his balance and flew around them quickly, slapping them around with his one good wing. He soon had them all in his clutches; Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Snake were all flattened against the wall by Metaquaza's mighty arms. Link and the electric mice were pressed down into the ground with his tail. How quickly the tide of the battle had turned once again, almost as if Metaquaza were merely playing with his opponents. He soon charged up a Hyper Beam and was ready to deliver the final blow.

However, his efforts were thwarted by Link, who stabbed him deeply in the tail. The electric mice soon capitalized by delivering a super effective Thunder to the newly opened wound.

Metaquaza roared as he loosened his grip on the heroes. Mario wriggled out of his grasp and flew up to slam with fireballs. Snake pulled out his rocket launcher, firing directly at the hand, allowing him to use his Cypher to escape. Luigi quickly followed his brother, opting to use his Green Missile attack, smacking directly into Metaquaza's face. For the final strike, Yoshi fluttered jumped high above Metaquaza, aiming his butt then landing squarely onto his good eye. Stars flew from his behind, blinding Metaquaza for the time being.

The multiple distractions were all the chance Snake needed to finally take this creature down. He let go of his Cypher and landed on the creature's snout, pulling it back and opening the creature's massive jaw. "Link! Mines! Now!" he shouted.

Link hastily stabbed an arrow through the bag of mines, then fired it into the creature's open maw.

Pikachu watched this from beside Link, and knew the plan was doomed to fail. They had already tried bombs in the stomach before, and it didn't work, he'd just heal himself as he had before. _Unless..._

Acting on a whim, Pikachu decided to risk it. Using his Agility, he quickly ran up along Metaquaza's body, then electrified his mouse body, sparks flying from his cheeks as he used Volt Tackle and followed the arrow, jumping into Metaquaza's open maw.

Snake released the monster's snout then jumped down to join the rest of them, who had crowded around Metaquaza. They all exclaimed in fear for Pikachu's safety, until they heard a muffled explosion in Metaquaza's belly, quickly followed by a short "Chuu!".

Metaquaza roared once more, smoke spewing from his throat. His body then crashed down before them and lay limp, its red eyes faintly flickering for a second before powering down.

Our remaining heroes stared at the mechanized beast in silence, still in shock. Pichu was the first to react; he ran up to Metaquaza, yelling for his lost friend, "Piiiichuuu!" as tears began to well up in his eyes.

Snake clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. "Foolish mouse..."

Mario shook his head sadly, his hat at his heart, while Luigi wailed in sadness, with Yoshi attempting to calm him down. Lucario merely stared in silence, sad, but keeping his emotions well hidden. Link stabbed his sword into the ground, dropping his shield then placed his hat to his heart, much like Mario.

Pichu couldn't believe that Pikachu was gone... That his big brother was truly gone... forever... Tears streamed down Pichu's eyes as he crouched beside the body of Metaquaza.

Snake placed a hand on Pichu's shoulder, reminding him that they had a mission. Pichu gave one last melancholy look at Pikachu's final resting place, before turning away. Snake picked him up and carried him on his shoulder as he said to the mechanical corpse. "Pikachu! I swear to you, you will be avenged! Your death will not have been in vain..." He turned to the solemn group "C'mon guys. Let's go."

However, just as they were about to leave, they heard a rustling from within Metaquaza's body. They leaned in closer, wondering if, maybe it was-

"Piiii...kaaah... CHUUU!" Electricity exploded from Metaquaza's body, ripping the mechanical body apart, and out popped a small yellow mouse.

With tears in his eyes, Pichu ran up to his brother, hugging him tightly, with Pikachu happily doing the same. The rest of them cheered happily, all immensely relieved that Pikachu was not truly gone.

Pikachu was a bit injured, but thankfully, it was nothing that a Mushroom couldn't fix. With the joyous reunion of their friend, they decided to continue their journey through Ganon's Castle to finish what they had started.

**[Did I scare ya? Don't worry, I would never kill off Pikachu, he's way too amazing! :3 I'm sorry if any of that made you cry or anything. I don't think I really write tear-jerker type things usually, but I suppose this is just a failed attempt at that. I guess I Wanted you to cry about the loss of Pikachu, but I'd still feel sorry if ya actually did cry... If that makes any sense at all v.v But anyways, there goes Chapter 18, hope ya like it :D]**


	19. New Challenger Approaching!

**[19]**

Ganondorf growled in fury, pounding the table. "They destroyed Metaquaza!"

Shadow was intently watching another screen, displaying a ninja-like figure cautiously sneaking around. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears we have more trouble" Suddenly, the camera displayed only static. The ninja then appeared on the camera next to it, in the room containing Zelda, for a second before this camera malfunctioned. "Someone's trying to free your princess"

Ganondorf roared more, "We're going to have to split up; I'll go after Zelda, you go defend your prisoner."

Shadow nodded, about to run off when Ganondorf caught him by the shoulder. Shadow turned to face him, as Ganon spoke lowly, "Shadow, I need absolute faith in you. Can I truly trust you?"

Ganondorf stared into his eyes, attempting to locate any sign of nervousness or anxiety that might symbolize mistrust. Shadow stared back, giving nothing away as he calmly responded, "Of course you can, we're on the same team."

Ganon nodded and released him, then muttered under his breath after he ran off, "I sincerely hope we are..."

-Meanwhile-

Zelda woke up, groggy from her previous punishment at the hands of Shadow. _If I were at any other castle, I could easily break out... _she thought as she rubbed her head.

At that time, a ninja-like figure dropped down from the ceiling, firing a ninja star at the nearby camera.  
The stranger wore clothes very similar to those Zelda herself had worn as her Shiek alter ego, though it was a darker shade of red, rather than the regular blue. The stranger even wore the same exotic symbols on her clothing, and the same hairstyle, with blond hair.

The ninja turned to Zelda, oblivious to her staring, and asked curtly, "Step back from the bars."

Zelda nodded, complying to the stranger's orders. The ninja quickly tossed a couple of explosives at the bars, freeing Zelda from her prison. She was too wary to be grateful at the moment, however; this stranger could just as easily be an assassin sent to kidnap her to another castle. There were certainly a few enemies who would take advantage of her captive situation. Wario and Bowser from the Mushroom Kingdom came to mind.

She stepped out of her cage, just as Ganondorf kicked down the wall and exploded into the room. The ninja was quick to react, throwing down some smoke balls and disappearing from the room. Ganon roared in fury at their escape.  
Their escape was not flawless, however. On his wrist, he wore a mini-computer, where he could access the castle's cameras. He replayed their escape, frame by frame, finding that they hadn't truly teleported. The ninja had merely taken Zelda and run to a hole in the castle walls.  
He quickly ran to the hole, and sure enough, he found them breaking into a room in the floor above. They didn't notice him, and disappeared into the room. Ganondorf chuckled darkly, activating the traps in the room they had fled to, before smashing the hole to fit his larger body and crawled up along the castle walls, following his prey.

The second she was safe on solid ground, and not hanging perilously on the edge of a castle, she broke away from her captor.  
"Who are you!" she demanded.  
The ninja's eyes flashed a bit, then lowered the cloth that covered her mouth, whispering teasingly in the voice, not that of a man, but of a woman.  
"Take a guess.."  
Zelda widened her eyes in realization, "Peach...?"  
She smiled brightly and nodded, then hugged Zelda, "It's mee!"  
Zelda hugged back a bit, shaking her head in disbelief, "But how..?"  
Peach grinned brightly, barely able to contain her excitement, "Ever since our last adventure on Meta Knight's ship, I've wanted to have an alter ego, just like you have Shiek. So I made Ayde!"  
"Ay..de..?"  
Peach nodded excitedly, "Yup!"  
Still in disbelief, Zelda asked, "But.. why Ayde?"  
Just then, the room seemed to come alive. A large ax randomly swung at them from the ceiling, Peach, or rather, Ayde was barely able to take Zelda out of the way.  
"No time to explain, we've gotta go!"  
Quickly getting up, they ran out of the room, dodging spiked walls, rolling boulders, flame barriers, pit traps. Eventually they burst out in the hallways, where they should be safe. However, the traps slowed them down too much, and behind them laughed the evil voice of Ganondorf.  
"And where are you two running off to?" He chuckled darkly.

**[Do I use the phrase '-Meanwhile-' too often? It seems like I do. Instead of most of those, on the document I have on my computer, I use these squigglys ~ but for some reason, it won't upload correctly here, so I have to use the generic -meanwhile- to signify different scenes. Grrrz.  
In other news, guess what? I finally updated! X3]**


	20. Splitting Up

**[20]**  
The team of eight finally made their way to the top of the castle, but much to their dismay, the tall dark chair did not reveal an enemy; the piano was eerily silent. They found the cages where Zelda and Sonic were held completely empty.  
"They knew we were coming..." Snake muttered.  
"Pikaa..." Pikachu sighed sadly.  
They split up to explore the room in depth, not finding a trace of where the villains might have gone. No physical traces at least... Lucario closed his eyes and concentrated, his ears picking up as he used his aura to scan the room. His aura suddenly picked up a space beyond the wall. His eyes still closed, he used his aura to guide him to the mysterious space. It might be just bad construction, but in castle this magnificent, that wasn't likely.  
"Snake, break through this wall."  
Fighting the urge to make a comment about following the orders of a dog, he pulled out some C4 and stuck it onto the wall.  
"Stand back... Now!" The wall exploded, then revealed something the characters would never have thought to find in a castle like this.  
The team of eight walked into the hidden room, an awestruck look on their faces. This was the control room of the castle, the only place full of high tech equipment in such a low tech dungeon. This stone room was full of monitors, live feed from cameras that must've been placed all around the castle.  
Link wondered where all these cameras were, considering they hadn't seen a single sign of any technology hanging around the walls.  
Pichu leapt up to one of the monitors, pointing as he exclaimed, "Pichu! Pichu!"  
The screen displayed Zelda with some kind of ninja, along with Ganondorf bearing down on them both.

An explosion from another monitor showed them Shadow's location. For some reason, he was breaking through a wall of the castle, to a place where there were no more cameras. He held an unconscious Sonic over his shoulder.  
"What do we do now?" asked Lucario tentatively.  
Snake, the most experienced in this sort of situation responded "We have to split up. Link, Pikachu and Pichu; you're with me, we're gonna stop Ganondorf. Mario, you take the rest and go after Shadow. We'll meet you there when we're done."  
Mario nodded confidently and gave a thumbs-up "Oh yeah. Here we go!" before running off with his group to save Sonic.

-Meanwhile-

"Chaos Spear!" yelled Shadow as he burst through the wall. His honed senses told him there was great energy in this direction. _It has to be a Subspace bomb,_ he thought. He carried Sonic limply over his shoulder, for collateral, in case the pesky good guys found him. The eight of them destroyed that mechanical beast; he couldn't possibly take them all alone. Luckily for him, they'd all be distracted by Ganondorf and that ninja. He should have enough time to set off the bomb and run, taking them all out in one fell swoop. He chuckled darkly to himself, _This couldn't have worked out any better._

**[I am.. incredibly sorry for not updating in so long. I've just been busy DX I mean yes, I graduated just a couple months ago, and I've got an insane amount of free time every day, but it's that reason exactly that's keeping me from writing DX But anyways, here's two more chapters that will advance the plot along. I'm still worried about -meanwhile- overuse, but anyways, enjoy~]**_  
_


	21. Owned by a Chick

**[21]**

Ayde stood protectively in front of Zelda, glaring at Ganondorf, who simply laughed. "Do you really think you can stop Me?"

He rushed up to them, a glowing orb of dark energy in his hand and smashed into the wall as they dodged to either side. He turned to Ayde, and ran up to her with a series of attacks, a right hook, left elbow, sparta kick, which she continually dodged. Then she jumped and kicked him in the head before jumping behind him and kicking the back of his knees, bringing him down. She then ran up to deliver the final blow, but just then, he rolled to one side, and, crouched down, he charged up his Warlock Punch. She widened her eyes as she just barely backflip-dodged the punch. It did catch her in the leg, and she stumbled as she landed, visibly hurt.

"You think a little.. urgh, scratch'll stop me? I'll still defeat you!" slowly, she got up and pulled out two long iron chains, smashing the ground before her in attempt to threaten him.

Ganondorf laughed again, "These weapons won't stop me either."

He started to run up to her, but before he took his second step, she wrapped a chain around his ankle and smacked him against the wall, before releasing. "What was that you said?"

He growled darkly and used his dark magic to teleport behind them. Although he couldn't teleport as fast as Shadow could, he still had the basic knowledge. He swiftly sparta-kicked Ayde in the back, and she hit the ground face-first.

"As I was saying..." he turned to Zelda.

"Zelda, Zelda, Zelda. It wasn't enough to simply hold you prisoner as bait to kill the heroes." said Ganondorf in a low, dark voice. "No.. You've driven me to the brink. Time and again, I've held you captive, and every time, you've been saved."

He took a few steps closer to her, causing her to back up against the wall.

"But not this time. This time will be different. I've already locked them all in this castle. They can't escape. And that means you're no longer necessary."

Another step closer.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way. But this."

Another step.

"Is."  
Final step, bringing them inches from each other. He fired up a dark orb of energy in his right hand and grabbed Zelda by the throat, lifting her up against the wall to look into her eyes.

"The end."

"Yah!" Ayde wrapped both chains around Ganondorf's neck, yanking him towards her, and away from Zelda. The action, however, gave him enough momentum to use his Warlock Kick, slamming her across the hallway.

"No!" yelled Zelda, running to her side.  
"Stay.. back.. I'm here to.. save you.. not the other way around.."  
Zelda shook her head, "We're friends, we help each other." She stood up and prepared her magic. "I won't let you scare me anymore"  
She glared deep into Ganon's eyes, then conjured a fireball in her hands using Dyn's Fire, tossing them at Ganon, who teleported away. He appeared behind them, but Zelda used her Nayru's Love shield to push him away. Ayde wasn't completely out yet either. She helped by wrapping her chain around his ankle once more, keeping him from teleporting away as Zelda prepared her final assault.  
"You were right, this Is the end." She threw two fully charged fireballs into him, slamming him into the wall and knocking him unconscious.  
"That won't keep him out for long. We've got to go." said Zelda as she helped Ayde up.  
"You're right.. Follow me! Ungh!" she tried to take a step, but was unable to; Ganon's attacks had wounded her right leg.  
"Don't move, I can teleport us out of here." Ayde nodded as Zelda used Farore's Wind to teleport them to the entrance of the dungeon.

A few seconds later, an explosion came from the ceiling and out dropped a soldier, followed by two electric mice and an elf.

"Stand back! We're here to rescue you!" called Snake.

A lonely silence replied as they all looked around, finding only an unconscious Ganondorf.

"Well that's just great. Now what do we do?"

Pichu went up to Ganondorf, poking tentatively him a couple times. He laughed and jumped on his back "Pichu! Pichu!"

Snake looked over to him, "Pichu, don't do that, he might wake- Ah!"

Suddenly, Ganondorf's eyes lit up. He roared and got up, charging his Warlock Punch to destroy the yellow little mouse. He widened his eyes, once more frozen in place as he feared his imminent death.

Snake quickly ran up and roll-dodged in front of the punch, taking Pichu out of harm's way and barely escaping.

He looked into Pichu's teary eyes for a second, then yelled "Think fast!" before tossing him over to Link, who fell over as he caught him. Snake quickly hopped over Ganondorf, dropping some C4 on his back, and exclaiming, "Now!"  
The explosive device burst and slammed Ganondorf against the wall, as well as producing enough smoke to cover their escape.  
"Let's move move move!" he yelled to his group as they ran off down the hallway, leaving a stunned Ganondorf behind.


	22. Shadow VS Kirby!

**[22]**

The two princesses emerged at the entrance, about to escape the castle when they realized...  
"A force field!" shouted Zelda as she the huge transparent, iridescent bubble around the castle.  
"Ganon wasn't kidding when he said we were trapped.." said Ayde.  
Zelda produced a small fireball, then shouted "Dyn's.. Fire!" as she tossed it at the enormous shield. The bubble merely fizzled as it reached the bubble, and the two of them groaned in defeat.  
"Well now what do we do?" asked Ayde in a disappointed tone.

-Meanwhile-

"There it is..." Shadow dropped Sonic in a not-so-pleasant manner beside the Subspace Bomb as he stared at it in awe.  
"So much power.. contained in a single capsule..." He lightly grazed his fingertips along the capsule, then grinned and laughed evilly as he set the timer for 5 minutes.

"And now all my problems are about to disa-"

"Poyo!" A pink puffball randomly appeared in front of him, kicking him away from the bomb before he could start the timer.  
"Gah!" growled Shadow under his breath as he back-flipped and landed softly.  
"And what exactly are You supposed to be!"

Kirby grunted determinedly as he stood protectively in front of the bomb.  
"You're the only one here to stop me? And here I was, expecting an armada of heroes. I'm almost disappointed" he chuckled darkly.  
"There's only one way this can end, you realize. But if this is how you wanna play it out, then so be it!" Shadow stared down the puffball as they prepared for battle.

Kirby ran up to Shadow, then jumped in front of him, and attempted to kick him, though Shadow simply dodged to the left, then kicked him across the room.  
"Is that all the power you have? I was expecting you to be at least Half a challenge." taunted Shadow.

Kirby growled he picked himself up, then looked around the room.  
"If you're not going to attack again, then allow me!" Shadow yelled as he teleported in front Kirby and punched him into the wall behind him.

Kirby yelled out in pain as he smashed through the wall, slowly picking himself up once more.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" mocked Shadow, who teleported once more. But this time, Kirby sucked up nearby pieces of stone from the broken wall, and jumped into the air, his entire body changing from the form of a cute pink little puffball, into a huge brown boulder with legs. When Shadow attempted to kick him again, he gasped at his new form.  
"What the..?"

Before he could react, the giant Kirby boulder leaned forward, pressing his entire bulky form onto Shadow. "Oh, god!" He was just barely able to roll out of the way before Stone Kirby smashed into the ground in front of him.

"Well this is interesting... Perhaps you'll be a challenge after all... Or perhaps not. Chaos Spear!" he aimed the burst of energy at Stone Kirby, who was slowly getting himself off the ground, but the blast didn't appear to faze him at all. Shadow growled and rolled himself up into a ball, then shot forward, slamming his spinning body into Stone Kirby, who fell onto his back on the ground, but was otherwise unharmed.

But although he was unharmed, he had run out of time in his stone form. Unfortunately, in this world, Kirby could not stay in his forms very long.

While Shadow was recovering from his spin attack, Kirby spit out a brown star, which symbolized his stone form, and tossed it at Shadow, smacking him across the face.

"Gah! You'll pay for that!"

Shadow wiped his face, then ran straight up to the vulnerable Kirby, preparing to kick him square in the face/body, but at that point, Kirby opened his gaping mouth, and sucked him in.

Shadow blinked and opened his eyes, seeing for a split second, mere blackness. _The infinite vastness of Kirby's stomach..._ He thought. Pretty soon, he was magically ejected behind Kirby, landing on his feet, and turning back to face Kirby. He widened his eyes at what he saw.

The pink puffball had stolen his red and black, upward pointing spiky hair, as well as his triangular pointed ears, yet remained pink from the eyes down.

Shadow growled out "Faker!" as he teleported to kick him again, but Shadow Kirby yelled out in a high pitched voice, "Chaooss... Contwow!"

Shadow blinked as they moved in slow motion, Kirby dodging his kick, moving beside him, and kicking him in the back. "Hyahh!"

Shadow fell on the ground, shocked and appalled at this faker. He picked himself up and turned to face Shadow Kirby, glaring darkly.

"Chaos Spear!"

"Chaos Speew!"

The two bursts of energy met in midair, causing an explosion and generating a field of dust around them. Shadow Kirby looked around, but when the dust settled, Shadow had disappeared.

By the time Kirby had sensed where Shadow was, it was too late. He turned to meet Shadow's hover boots face first, slamming against the wall, spitting out his Shadow power, dropping a star nearby, which quickly poofed out of existence.

Shadow grunted then laughed darkly, "Just as I thought... you were Almost a challenge. But this is the end for you. Chaos... bah!" Before he could fire the Chaos Spear, he was greeted with a ball of aura, slamming him against the wall as well. He got up to see Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Lucario in the doorway.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding mee...!"

**[Yayyy, another update! I feel it's been fifty years since I last updated T,T Does anyone even read this series anymore? If I has a single review, I shalls begin posting at least one chapter per story a week. Maybe.. Hehhh, we'll see ^^; Cyaaa~]**


	23. Mission Complete

**[23]**

Shadow glared down at the newcomers, who rushed over to Kirby's side. They stood facing each other for a second, before Shadow made the first move, teleporting between them, yelling "Chaos... Blast!"

The resulting explosion seperated the heroes, Mario, Yoshi and Kirby were slammed to one side of the room, Luigi and Lucario to the other side.

Shadow wasted no time taking out the weaker of the bunch, teleporting behind Luigi, and delieering a side-kick to his back.  
"Wack!" yelped Luigi as he fell face first to the ground. "Ohhh.. bai bai.." were his last words as he lay dizzily on the ground.

Shadow then jumped on top of Yoshi before he could react, kicking his sides and forcing him to charge at Mario, who easily jumped up and out of the way. Mario was about to shoot fireballs at his opponent, but stopped himself for fear of hurting his companion.

Shadow turned Yoshi around then began to charge at Mario once again, but was quickly sniped off of Yoshi by Lucario from the other side of the room.

Shadow growled at them, quickly picking himself up and dashing over to Mario, who put his fists up to defend, yet also ready to dodge in case he teleported behind. But instead, Shadow stopped just in front of Mario, catching him off guard, and delivering a hard blow to the stomach. Mario widended his eyes in pain, before falling to the floor. "Nuh..noo..."

Lucario and Yoshi were the last two, Kirby still off in the corner, regaing his strength. Lucario whispered over to Yoshi, "Don't worry, I have a plan." Yoshi tilted his head in question, before Lucario jumped onto his back. "Go!"  
"Yoshi!" Yoshi instinctively ran forward, yet thought _This is the plan?_

Shadow laughed before teleporting behind them, about to kick Lucario, but was instead greeted by an aura ball, slamming him back against the wall, near the door.

Lucario and Yoshi turned around to face him, glaring in determination, as Shadow picked himself up. "You are indeed.. a worthy adversary.. But you cannot defeat me. For I.. AM.. The Ultimate Life Form!"

He threw his arms down beside him, ejecting his two rings from his wrists. His body glowed golden a bit as he powered himself up, growling in fury. "You will not leave here alive!"

Shadow burst forward at an incredible speed, his legs not even touching the ground as he crashed directly into them, both flying off and crashing into the wall, falling limply to the ground.

He glared back down at the five of them. "Hmph. Weaklings." He closed his eyes for a second, his body releasing the golden glow as he put on his rings again, then returned to the subspace bomb, turning the timer on. He also adjusted it to ten minutes, just in case.. He could never be too sure. With all these heroes mucking about, they could easily set him back enough to get caught in his own explosion. He could not allow this to happen.

He cast a sidelong glance to the hedgehog he had brought with him, still unconscious. _Didn't even have to use the bait.. This was too easy, __hehehe.._  
With no remorse in his eyes, he teleported out of the room.

-Meanwhile-

Ganondorf groaned as he got up, rubbing his head a bit in pain. He thought for a bit, trying to regain full consciousness and mobility. He looked off to either direction, wondering where both the princess, and those brats had vanished to. He checked his bracelet mini-computer once again, confirming that the princess was at the gate, yet trapped inside. He laughed darkly as he watched them "Trapped like rats.. all of them.. Bwahaha!"

But then he checked a particular section of the castle that caught his eye. He found Shadow carrying Sonic through a hole in the wall, and then a team of heroes running after him. For some reason, he didn't quite trust that the location was a secret exit of some sort. _What is that hedgehog planning..?_  
Putting his own plans of destroying the princess, and the heroes on hold, he made his way down to the area.

What he found did not please him at all. _Shadowww!_


	24. An Unlikely Alliance

**[24]**

In the room was a timer, hooked up to some sort of bomb. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Lucario, Sonic, and Kirby all lay scattered around the room. _If he's this powerful, he may even be able to defeat mee... Whatever this bomb he set off, he's going to caught in his own explosion, as I still have the shields up. This bomb could be a blessing in disguise.. It would rid me of multiple heroes at the same time, as well as the princess, and the "legendary" Link. Yet.. it would feel like an empty victory... I want to feel the satisfaction of destroying them with my bare hands._

He wondered intently. If he lowered the shields, he would be able to escape the blast, but so would the princess, and Shadow. The other heroes, he did not care for either way, but if Link died here as well...

As much as he hated to admit it, he would be forced to collaborate with the heroes once more. At least, for now, to get rid of Shadow.

He looked back at the heroes, in their battered forms. _There must be some way to heal them... Aha! The princess!_

Ganondorf quickly left the room, scanning his cameras to check their movements.

-Meanwhile-

"So what're we going to do now..?" groaned Ayde.

Zelda thought for a bit, then sighed in defeat. "We're going to have to go back in there, and face Ganondorf once again."

Ayde widened her eyes, "Face that beast? Again? You saw how we barely escaped last time!"

Zelda nodded, "Yes, but we did escape. If we did it once, we can do it again. Together" She looked determinedly into Ayde's eyes. "Are you with me?"

Ayde turned to stare off into the distance, then nodded with the same amount of determination as Zelda. "Yes! I'm ready. Let's go back in."

Just as they were about to take their first step back into the castle, Ganondorf appeared at the doorway.

"Well well, speak of the devil." muttered Ayde, as she and Zelda got into battle position.

"Calm down, both of you. I'm not here to kill you. Yet. I.. require.. your assistance."

They exchanged glances with each other before turning back to him, "You mean... You need our help?"

"If you must put it that way, yes."

"Why should we trust you?" said Zelda.

He snorted derisively "Because if you don't, you, me, this castle, and all the heroes inside it, will perish."

They widened their eyes, "What are you talking about?" cried out Ayde.

"I'm talking about the bomb that Shadow has set off in this very castle. We have less than ten minutes to disarm the bomb, and defeat Shadow."

"Why don't you just lower the shield, and let us all go?" said Zelda.

"I am not losing my castle to that.. hedgehog! Besides, I only need you to heal up the heroes, so they can kill Shadow."

"No one's killing anyone!"

"And what do you keep talking about heroes?" asked Ayde.

"...Did you really not notice? They've all been scrambling around trying to find you and the blue hedgehog. Mario, and his people, Link, and a bunch of those other guys."

Ayde perked up, "Mario's here!"

"Yeah, but he's been knocked out. Now, just follow me, and quit wasting time. When Shadow realizes I've got this place on lockdown, he'll come looking for us." He turned around and went back into the castle.

"Should we trust him?" asked Zelda.

"Can we afford not to? If he's right about the bomb, and about Mario and Link, we have to follow him." answered Ayde.

They nodded and followed him into the castle.

**[Really short, quite useless chapters really, just a midway point as we get to more action. For some reason, this entire fanfic feels like a bunch of bridges between action scenes x-x I'll try to get some more action in soon, and some other stuff or whatever. There're just so many characters to keep track of! x_X Well, kthnxbai Cyaaa~]**


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